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When Robert Hillestad tried to withdraw 200 pounds from an automatic teller machine in London last April, he got a bait-and-switch. Almost literally. "While waiting for the machine to reel off my receipt, the bills that had been dispensed were pulled back into the machine," he says. Hillestad was in the British capital for a quick vacation and to see the royal wedding, but the prospect of losing about $320 USD cast a long shadow across the experience. "Using an Internet cafe nearby, I verified that the amount had, in fact, been debited from my account," he says. And so began a long journey to retrieve his money. It turns out ATMs can inflict a lot of unnecessary...

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When Robert Hillestad tried to withdraw 200 pounds from an automatic teller machine in London last April, he got a bait-and-switch. Almost literally.
"While waiting for the machine to reel off my receipt, the bills that had been dispensed were...

Q: I rented a car from National for a family trip to Houston recently. The rental was uneventful. But a month later, I received a letter saying that the car had been returned with about $2,000 worth of damage, which included needing to replace a front...

Like many travelers, Hal Frost is accustomed to being hit with fees everywhere he goes, from the airport check-in counter to the hotel front desk. But long-term parking used to always be pretty straightforward: the rate he was quoted was the rate he paid....

You buy a ticket, pay all those pesky extra fees, and take your flight. When it all works smoothly, you pretty much get what you pay for and what you expect. But when you encounter anything out of the ordinary, you may run up against problems you never...

Q: I made a reservation at a Fairfield Inn in Philadelphia earlier this year. I prepaid for two nights and received a confirmation.
The day before I left -- six months after I made the reservation -- I got an email from a manager at the Fairfield, saying...

Philip Bramson's iPod vanished from his checked luggage on a recent flight to Mexico, and recovering it seemed impossible.
"It was hidden in my luggage, so it could only have been seen through the X-ray or a pretty thorough search," he says....

When, exactly, did flight attendants stop caring about us?
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Over the years, my incendiary writings have offended everyone from airline pilots to card-carrying frequent fliers to travel agents. I make no apologies for ticking them off.
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Here's...

With all the recent stories about questionable damage claims on rental cars, it's no surprise that motorists like Mike Weaver would insist on inspecting his vehicle before renting it. Or that he expects to note every ding and dent before he drives...

"The Walking Dead,"AMC's epic, buzzy zombie apocalypse drama, returns from its midseason hibernation this Sunday at 9 p.m. with the first of six episodes closing out the second season.
The midseason finale, which aired on Nov. 27, saw a...

The best rate Darren Popik could find on a weekend car rental at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport recently was $114. So he decided to look elsewhere.
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Hotels want to know who you are, especially if you're reviewing them anonymously.
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Be nice to your car rental agent. Otherwise you could end up like Hank Jeffries.
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Q: We recently rented a car through Avis in Frankfurt, Germany, via AutoEurope. We declined the insurance, since our credit card covers us.
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I'm not sure how a fully inflated beach ball got in my hotel room.
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Where's the line? When you're staying at a hotel, is it OK to pocket the bottles of shampoo and lotion? How about the magazines? Bathrobes? Furniture?
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Resort fees. Mandatory tips. Concierge surcharges.
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Although he sometimes feels "a little dishonest" about it, Jeremy Reed says he doesn't have much choice: With seven children, from an infant to a teenager, and on a limited budget, he often reserves only one hotel room when he's on vacation.
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